LimeWire Strikes Back Against RIAA
The RIAA is one of my favorite scumbag organizations - for as much misery as they cause I must admit some of the group's antics are downright entertaining. In recent RIAA court battle Arista v. LimeWire Arista, a recording company is seeking to sue LimeWire (a widely used file sharing application). Since it happens that most of the files shared on LimeWire are music files, the RIAA gets involved to save the recording industry from the pirates. But there's nothing so surprising about that.
What's interesting about this case is that Lime Wire has filed a counter suit against the RIAA. LimeWire says the record industry's strong arm lawsuit against them is an antitrust violation - the RIAA simply wants to destroy any avenue of music distribution that they do not control.
In the countersuit, LimeWire points out that the RIAA is sapping new innovative business models that content owners do not control. The best interests of consumers aren't served by this kind of free enterprise stifling.
Does a peer to peer service stand a chance against the RIAA? Probably not in my humble opinion, but bravo for biting back.
